Pricegrabber also adopts ScanAlert's "Hacker Safe" icon

ScanAlert continues its push into CSE territory with the latest announcement of a partnership with PriceGrabber.

It's the same gig as Yahoo! Stores -- "certified" (read: paying merchants) will have a Hacker Safe logo next to the merchant's name in search results. 

This is a pretty effective strategy for ScanAlert, and will no doubt fuel a mob effect that such a deal is intended to create. 

But do merchants actually see real results?  From the research I've done, an uptick in conversion rates as a result of having the "Hacker Safe" logo displayed depends on a number of factors including store quality, product mix and design.  (This obviously wasn't a scientific experiment).

That being said, it's been rumored that ScanAlert utilizes a free piece of software called Nessus to perform their security scans.  If you're a merchant, you can download this tool here.

Written by Scott Hurff -- scott.hurff at channeladvisor

Comments

[JP Werlin]

Scott -

Hackersafe is claiming undisclosed merchants have experienced a "10 - 14%" increase in conversion with the display of the Hackeersafe logo on Yahoo! I am still waiting to speak with these merchants and will let you know when/if I do.

If no one does it, than whose to say a mob would even begin to congregate much less buy it?

[Scott Hurff]

JP - definitely let me know what you hear on this!

Re: the mob effect -- ScanAlert is playing upon fears and it's like the high school "cool kids" effect...if all the cool kids are doing it, then mostly everyone else does it, too.

[Phil Dye]

We ran a HackerSafe trial as an A/B split-test a while ago on our (non-Yahoo) ecommerce store, and saw /no/ difference in conversion ratios.

I guess there could be many factors that influence this; my thoughts are that on a well executed, best-practice site, consumers possibly feel safe anyway, so the added reassurance of HackerSafe isn't needed.